Maoz Tzur | Dr. Aaron Adler

sheer is uh dedicated as old the shum this year here in memory of alisheva Sima V zman Shalom the song most in all likelihood the Negan the traditional nigun dates back to the 16th century there's some want to push it back a little bit earlier but um there are musicologists who have identified uh various um Musical streams of the mo as found in lurgical music of the Protestant church and that's not an accident by the way we even have in some of theim whether it's laich or um gar where they were taken from some of the famous marches of of Music uh Napoleon uh background uh era music this something that is known uh just as today uh modern Jewish music Sometimes integrates some of the uh The Rock and the and the bouncing thank you very much of of uh of modern day and it's not to be uh it's not an accident North African music Moroccan Jews and Tunisian Jews reflect um the music of of that particular culture so Mo the most accepted notion of this nigon that we use for MO is is uh seems to identify with some of the lurgical music of the Protestants there are some that want to say that it's just the opposite that it actually has Jewish bases but Martin Luther liked it and he brought it into the church and that's not an accident either by the way almost similar to um if if anybody remembers Pope John Paul II um he was from uh first pope that came out of uh uh CA from Poland and so he he once had a get to a big big public mass in New Jersey at the giant Stadium um across the Hudson River and there were almost as many people there as were for the C masas almost as many um and they sang Le with English words k l and goes back to 1988 when kak taught it to the church and so and and they liked it and they they they adopted it as part of their liturgical music so these things can happen um that maybe Martin Luther took a liking to this particular song not the Mur the niggan the melody not the lyrics and and it became part of the church music but in all likelihood it was just the opposite that it was church music and somehow another filtered down why would the Jewish Home be interested in integrating a Protestant church song into our masarat and it has a lot to do with the enmity to the Catholic church because it wasn't that M Luther was a sadic he was a big an ani there's no question about it the only thing is that in Protestant countries ultimately Jews were allowed more religious freedom freedom than they had on the Catholic Church domination with there we suffered so specifically in the days of the Crusades the First Crusade the Second Crusade Third Crusade and so on so and it's possible that there's even illusion to um one of the kings of the third crusade in the last stanza of Mo we will see it is a song that was not necessarily composed for Kaneka it was adopted for Kaneka but it's a song that talks about Jewish suffering the storic Jewish suffering and the ultimate ultimate Redemption we call Salvation but that seems to be a Christian word help you know get it bailing out um and so on and we'll see why it was adopted for khah so let's see it inside so you have on the page the whole song five stanzas six stanas one two three four five six six stanzas the opening and then the five stanzas of history and then the various Source material of where these lines come from and what might be the background so while we're all familiar with Mo as children most of us are not familiar with the understanding of the so that's why we have a she today what does that mean what does it mean is the rock which mean it's something about is the rock or the the the the the the strength of our help right and where does that come from so if you look at source number one it's the middle of the page from the says as if to say to lendon ear just pay attention which means in English pay attention quickly help me I need I need help desperately you shall be for me so you see you here you have here means like Fortress you should be for me a fortress to help me so is Rewritten asua now you'd think that the author of The Yeshua you know did this that's poetic license you can take the PUK and work the words and shift the the back and forth and so on except he's not the first one to say this now take a look at the acrostics of Mo that's Mor so we know that the author is morai and the last stanza well there's no more to right but if you look at the first three words of the last stanza it's it's kak and many of The ashkanazi Poets would build into the acrostics their name and then Zak that was a way of ending of sorts so there possible that this the last answer is an integral part of the song and authored by this morai whoever he is which we don't know 100% still this very day or was an addon was never part of the original song and was attached to the Mur poem and we'll see in a few minutes why what the significance was so whether it's an original or whether it's an add-on I can tell you that there were certain communities and I grew up on this that we never sang the last paragraph We finished with and as being the the kanah stanza and that was it and we just didn't sing some people do sing it the fact that there were different and it wasn't that my father was just hungry and wanted to get get it over with that could have been the case right the lkas were you smelled the lkas already that if there was a if there were communities and most probably this was the Min of Galia that they didn't sing is an indication that we're dealing with two Traditions that it has the last answer or doesn't have the last answer which already is suggestive that it's an addition okay so it could be an addition but theak somehow gives me an impression that maybe it's not an addition but it's the the author Mori who would end with as many of The bevil Poets did there was a m Ben in the end of the 13th Century there was a a very very big program in Germany was called the r program 1298 one of the people murdered there was the was probably the talm mhak of the Mahar marenberg Mar of May Ben had a talm muak whose name was um RAB mayor cohain from Rutenberg and um he was the author of The ha go anybody studying rambam and I'm sure everybody studies rambam every single day knows that with the small print on the bottom you have this is an ashkanazi great who does to the rambam exactly what the r does to he makes it asazi friendly because the ra and if askanazi is reading this and you're going to take it at face value you're not going to to fulfill the in accordance with ashkanazi tradition so he fills in the blanks and he said well we do such and such and we don't do such and such and he does exactly what the r does on this is the author of the um I received for a b mitzah present an uncle of mine who's still living in b a very miniature rambam and I remember on the train from Bor Park to wash kns to Wu one train I would prepare the Kat t for that coming chabas and one train read rambam but the letters of the was so small I couldn't read it because you know train moves you know and you have to read the text itself I was able to just make out that so is very very important he perishes in the r with with his brother-in-law RAB Ben who authors the Mori what's the Mori anybody studying Shas Yesa knows that one of the adjunct Bal is known as the M hisim are printed in the back OFA under the name m so it could be that he is the author of the mo it makes sense historically it makes sense in terms of what he's trying to say maybe it's somebody a hundred years earlier a pan ashkenaz who's known as morai Ben something and we don't know absolutely but we think it could be this Mor benel because he's written other poems and sometimes you know just like every kalbak nigan sounds the same people who write poetry so sometimes their style can be matched to other poems that they write they've written and the other poems that were written by this RAB Mor Ben match the poem scheme of the mo so he might be the mor Mo Yeshua well was he the first one to take the of and WR pay attention to gab I know that's a street in Tel Aviv it's a street in J but he actually lived he was a um a 11th century Spanish poem when we took the trip to Spain a year and a half ago we stood by a statue in Malaga he's honored by the city of Malaga schl gabiro many of his poems have entered into the and the keyote that we say one of the that we ashm say during the begins with I've gotten up early in the morning of course this said at 10 pm doesn't make sense nor is it make sense for the 9:30 able late minion actually the 9:30 is the early minion 10 11 o'clock would be the late minion so at 10:30 they get up early to say you know so to say I got up early this is in line with the rambam says that it's is to be said before the break of dawn and to said for an hour and the the the the line that repeats itself is lifted out of M that's a sheer in itself I don't want to get bogged down but in the last stanza of this particular poem it reads kados I don't have the bet mikash [Music] alone I'm asking to wipe out our sins because we're mentioning your name who is your name I'll read it again so the first one to rework the of and it is very likely that this poem was well known in the already in as in the 13th century and um whether it's rabi morai benel or some other rabi Mori opens up with this line you to you only is it worthy to say praise to please restore the house of prayer and there we will offer the to now one second mikash nicknamed here so if you look at source number two from will be once again brought on the remember in America they used to have on the highways the International House of Pancakes this is the International House of Prayer the International House of and who coined it the first time as the International House of Prayer at the opening ceremony of there's not a word about corbane the whole thing is about the whole thing um where where we say in the the first right this is SCH and everything about that is just identifying b mikdash as the B and you have to realize that in the 13th century ashas there was no B mikdash it was just a fleeting dream so they had M they had so to them the the focus of what mikdash is it's the International House of because we focus our physically towards bet mikdash so he says that's what bet mikdash is there are other things there of course there and so on we'll see he's mentioning specifically one type of Corban that we would bring theban to the there is a view in the M of in that says that in the the end of days when we'll have bet mikdash there will be no more Corban animal sacrifices only Corban to Thanksgiving tax why because if theban essentially is a is is for capar for for for atonement there is this Utopia idea that in yot mashia people won't sin who did not buy into this the ramb the ramban believed that human beings will still be frail and will still sin except much less so it's going to be a much healthier both physical and spiritual Society but it's not going to be 100% 100% will never be so there will be need for type of atonement for and so on today says that is a monthly and that's why there is y in the calendar except they can't fast on rodes so when is it it's moved back to a rodes and this month they couldn't have that either because it was KH because Kan the fast but usually you have AES day before is there's actually that some people still say till this very day that's so reflects a unbelievable theme that in its major purpose is not going to be cor it's GNA be and there if there's G to be anything to offer as a sacrifice it's going to be a Corban this is a reflection of this view in the medish that the Corban to is the only Corban that will be around in the third bet mikdash even though the rambam spends two full books of his 14 of the Mishra teaching us the detailed laws of bet mdash every single Corban including and so on begins each book of the 14 with a p either from Mish that spells out the theme of the of that particular book the book called corote The R lifts out of and I have a hunch that the r selected that in a type of Hal I don't think it's G to be I don't think that's going to happen in the mashia but Hal that all we're going to need bet mikash is for it's a type of expression of as if to say that's should be so here the pan is using reflecting on that you see the the whole thing is that and then it says should prepare the time to prepare the time for what or let me reite read it not the kitchen it's the slaughter we're asking to slaughter who those those root ruthless ones who are who are who are roaring who are who are barking who are barking and making biting us with trouble we ask destroy them outright should destroy the enemy should be a right you should take a went on in in Beirut and so on and what we've done in Gaz is the r says the when you complete Hal so you know we have Hal we complete Hal for 18 days during the year which is eight days of sukot and one day of p and one day of shab and eight days of is 21 days because you have to have y I don't know if you have to have it but you have y and the remaining days of P we only read Hal abbreviated you know people call it you say 90% you know so the wordi doesn't mean half it means partial just like kades isn't half and when you talk about less than a kazet of eating matah it doesn't mean you ate 50% of matah mean you less than the whole that's what means I once gave a sheer in in remote and it was about the concept of eating less than a sh of mat and the of L than and it was called and somebody actually asked me when you get when are you giving the second half of the shear he thought was I'm only giving half the shear this time as I come back next year you get the second half right but the ra believes that the when we complete the like today is according to the r there's no at all when you don't complete there's noes or the remaining days of and when you do say Hal with complete it's p p right and and others thought that you say when you complete and when you read incomplete likees and is to say no matter what but the hair he has M complete the Mis where does that come from look at source number four now let me let me explain something five six on the bottom so he's using so you see he hasic l in his mind now if you flip the page is mentioned in tomorrow morning's at the end of 42 the long laning tomorrow because we read from the Eighth Day of the till the 12th day and then the epilog and the next the idea of that's the nickname of Tomorrow last day is called zuka some people say because the gatri of zot is eight without the tough right but just don't look at the tough It's Z it's eight that's a great gash it's 408 except don't just ignore the 400 it's zuka and the the idea we call zuka because of the and the uses the because they made a that's what you see in there was a of course it all reflects back to when the the Mish was inaugurated and the inauguration of the mishan had to do with the inauguration of the M because that was the key activity in the mishan in the in the desert so therefore it wasn't called kanuk Mish later it is called but but it's called kanuk and the pan says let's do it again and by the way it was done once again in the Kaneka story so here you might have an indication of why this song became aah song because it's actually a for the third bet mikdash except that there was a an episode in the second mikash where there was a and and and and therefore let's let's talk about it but to get to that the um the the the uh the idea of you look again at source number four and five on the first page on the bottom so you have from the first war against it ends with door something about the seat of the Throne of a war against Amal every single generation every single generation some generations it's it's worse sometimes it's just benign but it's there it's under the rug and sometimes it comes out in the open that it's very painful so Rashi tells us there was raised in his throne is using his throne to battle Amal which means the battle against Amal is not the go against the Jew it's the russer against that's what it is we are the we are on the battlefield what is it's actually without the it's that something that shriveled up from God's name was cut in half sh God's name won't be complete sh and his throne won't be complete total eradication and annihilation of then's name is and his throne will be complete so this is and now what he does is what terrible yeah yeah and now we go to poem says let's take us through door door Generations where big things happen to am Isel and was there so the first one is going to be the second is going to be the first bet mikdash destruction and galut B the next is going to be the purm story the next is going to be the khaka story we'll hold off with the last for we finish this let's see it my my life is satiated with Eve with bad Deeds with bad bad occurrences my my strength is already evaporated I have no more strength I'm I'm kaput I exhausted totally exhausted right my my life was was embittered this is a takeoff on the word the reason that we eat Mor on S night who's drop flip quickly to Source number eight Source number eight from here so there's an illusion or an association of MIT Tola and Mal the Kingdom of Egypt and the poet here uses it being enslaved to the Egyptian Kingdom that's the is right I have the here in Source number 10 Source number nine rather is the chosen this is just a take off from of number 10 say that the Egyptians went down in three different ways like Stone like straw kkash and like ofer like lead and the kazal said there were three different levels of Egyptians those who were theim of the even amongst the r there were the better ones they died without pain they went down like lead those who are The Inbetweeners so they suffered a little bit and went down like Stone and those who were the biggest for went down like straw which means took a long time till they went down and they suffered going down picks on the middle one that's was there for us and then D what is D it's a nickname of BET mikdash right if you remember from hosas the second day of of and you just go on 22 letters of alet you have 22 nicknames of Y but the med says there are 70 but here the pan just uses 22 because he's using the Alat soid is the you brought us to the land of is and we built the mdash the holy land after we come to is wasn't quiet there at all we had to deal with Aram we had to deal with as and then we had to deal with bavel we was not quiet at all and all you have to do is read the say and and you see how not quiet it was the the one the oppressor came and sent us to galut this was the the crunch the crushing blow of why we served idolatry we served I was drinking the the drink of poison that's how bad it was we were almost totally lost that's a takeoff on a in if you wouldn't have left over a Remnant a Remnant then we would have been finished we've been like stman Amora so this is what he's picking up and he's saying Kim we were almost totally lost it was by the grace of God that something what remained 10im were annihilated and two remained Yehuda and bamin of course some Le K but then bubble had its end when does bubble have its end with the rise of the Persian Empire and that's 18 years after the destruction of the first bet mikash already Babylonians are not in town and now it's Persia Kat Z we'll see he was one of the first governors of is you helped us out after 70 years of gal flip the page to Source number 13 11 rather for one possible identity of Z says he's actually Babylonian grown what's his real name he's actually a famous from there's only one problem to this the DAT don't match and actually comes to way after Z so okay so there's a thought that that he is identified with the same with regard to the Persian kings so the gar says who Who Dares who now one second they're three different Kings so what does it mean he's the wants to say it's the same guy you know same one once he's called this once he's called that it's almost like who who it's all the same thing so I once from a great Professor mayor from he was my my teacher in history wonderful person so he said what was saying was you know who Carter who abama same thing Z wre you know all these presidents one after that they were they were they were bad to us and so on that's what K was saying you know who dares they were talking about dares the first by the way not dares the second who according to kazal was a son of EST and he was the one who really gave am the kick in the pants to go back to way after the Declaration of Kes and so on so Associated him perhaps with but it's refer referen directly to the beginning of B who KES the ends and then there's rub the beginning of the B you helped us at the end of seven years of and then what happens in the Persian era and this is still before the building of the second bet mikdash let's identify is actually a a it's a it's a it's a it's a spice so flip the flip the page let's identify page number 12 opened up the following mid with the following par this is from yes we read it on a by right we know this so the so explains this as follows is a reference to made himself into which the whole reason that people didn't want to bow down to him they they bow out to him because there was some type of statue on his chain and they want to bow down to it and the proves that is referen and who is somebody instead of H who's gonna rise the head of all of the spices as it says what's m in Theus the translation ofus is Mary spelled m and that's weird now you can't even get it from the words you have to under the rug you have to get it from the UN translation that is M but what does that mean that m is the spice I can only understand it by introducing a r in R gives us reasons for the mitzvah in the third section of the and he says the reason for the why was the in mikdash it was um deodorant it was deodorant can you imagine what must have smelled like in b mikdash a toys you go into a slaughter house you go to a butcher right it stinks so you want to get out as quickly as you can because you're your your your clothing everybody's going to know where you just wore in the last 15 minutes just by the scent from your clothing now you imagine bet mikdash having that kind of an odor a foul odor this Blood meat you know so who's gonna want to go to bash supp to be pleasant to be there so they the Tora figured out what the you know toilet room bathroom spritzes you know figured out a long time ago this deodorant room deodorant so you had the giving off a a a DE in type of smell that neutralized the foul odor of mikdash and was so potent that the say in you can smell the that that's why it's called from the r of the bet mikdash you can catch the scent of the and by the way one of the 11 items of the also had a foul odor and theal teach us that part of is also foul odor and don't throw him away he's part ofel that you might think well I'm a sadic you know and I live in a Jewish neighborhood and religious neighborhood and neighborhood and everything everything I don't want have to do with somebody else wrong CL Isel has as part but here who is the B Ro the B Ro is the top of the line of the and according to the rambam that the Tor was the scent that neutralized the foul odor says mold and mor heard what was going on what happened he read the papers he heard CNN that there's going to be a is an Edict of extermination against am Israel no no no couldn't understand what went wrong that is now deserving total extermination what did they do means or in English it clicked today when you tell the kids you first have to explain what a public telephone is and what theim are and what when they clicked they don't know what you're talking about you know because it's in the Museum of Natural History next to the dinosaur the public telephones it clicked what clicked now I I got it I understand KES KES gave an edict says you have a license to go back there build the bet mikdash you don't have to have an army just go build the BET mdash and Persian army is going to protect it'll be fine and there were no takers there were no takers you know the last time there were no takers for Isel it's called the mor they no takers they didn't want to go and what did say that's it hold on yeah I'm just going to close it up close up the shop that's it this generation is not going in I'll say in this m inan they lose everything the generation that lose everything everything because they didn't want to go and ter and now it's happening again in the days of Persia and says that's what was doing I got it and that's why when you talk about Pur you have to see the component in the in the story of PM and it certainly was an component so M was the he was the to somehow neutralize the foul odor of CLA Israel and that's why kazal called him the bar Ro and here the pan saysat somebody wanted to hang hang moldi cut down a tree right and a to tree and gonna hang the who wanted to do that we don't even mention the name H he's right but twisted around and he fell into his own trap he h fell into his own trap and his hoiness was broken because the way circumstances was with M and Esther working this out and Esther specifically working this out right elevated the who's the he was raised and the name of the enemy was erased that's why he doesn't mention hamon he calls him AAG Ben H doesn't exist anymore he's out of the picture he's off the radar and most of his children and his possessions were hung were hanged on the tree so my wife asked me who are the K I just gave the answer it was his wife's the acquisition of men in in rabic literature is a so when he says rob it wasn't that they hanged his furniture or his microwave they hang his wives that the Kim and roav why majority of children who got away who escaped so turn to the page number 13 from the this is the famous gor of Kam and who is that R this is just one version see what I was very careful Al there's a missing Al it's supposed to be the AL got dropped by accident show not the different versions who are the bav who are the children descendants of hamon who taught not studied Liu taught Torah in benra one opinion it was Raba we do know that Rab's father was a Roman was a g we know that raham says it but mentioned in the Gar so the so he may this Roman may have had genealogical connections to hon so therefore we have to understand that not all of Hon's children were wiped out and that's why he says roav most of his children but they were survivors and some generations later to Tyra in benra I once had a situation in raote where we used to have guests coming for Shabbat and U and people would have would introduce me okay fine you know what are they doing these days I'm learning in sh it's an offshoot of America's ra and then they they the host from Ramo tells me you know he's a great grandson of Trotsky trky remember Lenin and try from the bulvik revolution trosky is turning over in his grave that he has a urle a great grandson learning Tyra in shave Yesa in the city of Kon this was what Kaz was saying satki was Jewish but he was a Russia Mar he was a russan without a doubt so happens him been Jewish but the think that okay so he should be you know for the rest of humanity no let's finish the next stanza is the Greeks gathered up against us in war the days of they broke through the walls of my tower which means mikdash they profaned all the oil was left a little bit in the jars jugs who are the Roses I'm we are the Roses the people with with with sense they were the instituted for eight days Days of and of and Al so this is the Hanukah so that's self-explanatory we we understand exactly who this is let's get to the last answer the last answer is not in past tense all the five are in past tense we had MIT and we had the Babylonians and we had the Persians and we had the Greeks we had we had we had bailed us out of all of them but now it's the Contemporary situation we ask flex your muscles your holy musles and initiate Kates bring the the the the Kates the end quickly quickly where does this come from so you don't have it on the page but um it's from yesu peric nunet yes peric and it says the phrase is lifted out [Music] of should take revenge this is written by somebody who saw the suffering right in front of his eyes and may have been one of those who fell in 1298 in the fles from the wicked Nation he's referring to the Catholic Church by the way and where does does it sound familiar it's from the that we say on Shabbat before which was written after the first crusade of it's it's stretching out it's too long this galut the others there were 70 years G even M whether it's 210 or 400 years here it's already 1,200 years since theban and the ran tells us in that the difference between the and the of in inab said you get through it you get through it it doesn't end it's just on and on and on and on it gets from one to worse and worse to even as we say Wier it gets worse and worse with time ran says the first is the 70 years of gut it was defined it was limited the second gut it's just unending and it's getting worse and worse with time that's the there's no ending it seems to be it's endless push the ad who is the admoni as ad Rome the Incarnation of Rome is the Catholic church in the 12th century in the 13th century beton the the cross in the shadow of the Cross you should push them bring back the the spirit of the Seven Shepherds who are the Seven Shepherds Turn the Page Source number 13 so first of all look at source number 14 it's you see the phrase in per Shalom so the gar actually in the medish tries to Define who are the seven and who are the eight and there all different types of U possibilities one it's the seven from the Suka and that's not an accident there's connections it's a whole Shear on connecting sukot TOA say we light from one to eight because of always increasing males says we borrow the descending order from the corot of in3 12 11 10 9 8 7 which adds up to 70 and it ends at one according to you start with eight but you work your way down to one and one is it was the from the great leader third generation ofid B you saw B the maged from MZ and his prime student one of his prime students who is the he's the one who brings Kut from the Ukraine area to Poland and from then onid is Center becomes Poland of course another contemporary of the wasman from liadi the found ofad but he's going the other way to Russia but in from leens is in the town leens visitable we've been there many times over and has safer that his son puts together of his teachings and it's called the no and let's let's this inside he's looking at the that we're gonna read tomorrow that tells to light the in the what does it mean word should have been and he says based on the the seven to Israel are Abraham yob Moshe the David they are the seven the whole world stands on these Seven Shepherds they are Illuminating seven days of construction they are the foundations of the existence of the world are called the light who serves Faithfully have to link themselves every sadic has to link themselves to the Seven Shepherds mentioned above teaches not only is it enough to bind himself with the Seven Shepherds he's got to bind himself with all of as well impossible you cannot B them with all of simultaneously the time that he's binding himself with he's got to descend got to go down from the upper strata and when he's connecting himself to the Seven Shepherds he's got to go up and up and up and up and he's not linked to CL so you can't do this simultaneously you can't have both bindings at the same time do it in in in in levels straight do it first of all you have to connect to in the seven and the Seven are going to be the seven rungs of the is to they are the Seven Shepherds they are look at the they are the this is they are the sword the root and and the body of the only afterwards then you can light the seven candles they are the seven here by it's an unbelievable thought based on the Z of the teaching spelling out who are the seven harim and it is very possible in the 13th century when the Zohar became known already that the author of the mo is already linking himself to this idea of the seven here you have a scenario a contemporary tar of Jews being wiped out generation after generation the First Crusade and the Second Crusade and now the Third Crusade and this program and that program we ask this is going on too long and you have to take it in hand and push away kick him away of the Adon but sa someone in the in the shadow of his cross came so these seven neot will once again shine in theik and this is the idea that kanuka became the symbol that it can happen there can be a what once was in the days of did happen a second time around and it can happen again and we ask Kosh not to wait too long a time this was written almost 750 800 years ago and it still didn't happen and tonight tonight when we light the last candle we're going to sing more so slowly and understand and internalize every single line and got us out of mitan and he got us out of galut and he got us out of the mess in Paras m in Persia in story and he got us out of the the helist and the Greeks he got us out of all that get us out of G finally finally [Music] finally that we should have a of being to derive something from the spirituality of Abraham yov Moshe and next week we're going to do the for the will come out on Friday this year so next week is the 8th of and we'll do a p from the of okay